Just a couple of weeks ago I was the host of another webinar presented by Moviola Filmmaking Webinars. This one was an info packed presentation called Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 for Final Cut Pro Editors. It was one of the most featured packed webinars that I’ve done as there was so much material to cover. As usual we received tons of questions before, during and after the webinar. I’ve tried to take most all of them and answer the questions in the blog post that follows. If there’s any corrections or updates to any of the questions please let me know. If you missed the PPro for FCP Editors webinar then the on-demand version is now available for purchase. So here we go.{C}
1) Will Premiere Pro CS6 output an OMF file for audio mixing?
Yes: File > Export > OMF will bring up this export dialog box to choose your preferred settings:
2) How to bring one timeline from one project to another?
The simplest method is you have a project open that you want to move a select sequence from is to just select the sequence and COPY. Then open the next project and PASTE. That will paste that new sequence into the edit. Note that all the media that is in that new timeline will get new items created in the project as well.
A more interesting method is to do a File>Import and choose a Premiere Pro project that contains a sequence you want to import. You’ll get an option import an entire project or a selected sequence:
Choose Import Selected Sequences and you can choose exactly what edits to import:
That’s one of the joys of Dynamic Linking amongst the Creative Suite applications, great interchange.
3) Can a FCP project be brought into CS6?
Premiere Pro CS six supports FCP XML so projects can be both imported and exported from Premiere Pro to Final Cut Pro. Export your entire project from Final Cut Pro as an XML and then import that XML into Premiere Pro. You may have to reconnect some media and it might not be a one hundred percent translation but it’s actually quite easy process.
4) How many clips in a multicam can you have while connected to a broadcast monitor using thunderbolt?
I’m guessing the question is really how many clips can play back in real time in the multicam split because you can have many more clips in a multicam and you can play back. How many you can play back at once in real time is dependent on many factors including frame rate, resolution, speed of your Mac but more importantly hard drive speed. The exact number is a bit unknown since I don’t know of a specific formula but if you’re using thunderbolt storage and you’re using ProRes as your codec of choice you will be able to play back more simultaneous streams you can actually keep track of in real-time
5) Is there a comparable Track Selection Tool? FCP shortcut (T)?
Yes, It’s called the Track Select Tool (it defaults to A on the keyboard). It selects one track at a time. Hitting Shift with the Track Selection tool active will give a double arrow that will select ALL tracks to the right. There isn’t an option to select tracks to the left.
You have to be careful when using the select all option in that if you release thee Shift key and click to drag it’ll then select only the single track you click on and deselect the “all” tracks you had selected. I make it a point to change to the Selection Tool (V) after making the selection if I need to click and drag.
6) How can you move a clip to a different layer with keyboard shortcuts?
You’re looking for the option up arrow, down arrow shortcut that Final Cut Pro uses to move clips up and down into higher and lower video tracks or audio tracks. Premiere Pro CS6 does not have the shortcut or a similar keyboard shortcut. It’s too bad as this is one of those little features that Final Cut Pro has that works very very well and is very very useful. Please Adobe add such a shortcut or something similar.
7) Can you rename clips in the browser and have them match the source clips in the CS capture scratch?
Nope, PPro doesn’t have this option to rename “Clip to Match File” or “File to Match Clip” that FCP has. That could be a dangerous option if you didn’t know what you are doing so it’s certainly not a deal-breaker for me … though I used it in FCP quite a lot.
8) How do you reconnect media?
Reconnecting media happens via the Project > Link Media command (or right+click on a clip). It’s a bit unlike FCP in that a clip has to be offline for it to work. Relinking is similar to FCP in that you get a dialog box with a file name the app is looking for:
But unlike FCP there is no option to have PPro automatically search a drive for a clip. That is greatly missed.
There is also a Make Offline command under the Link Media command. With Make Offline you can opt to leave the file(s) in disk or be deleted. Think about Make Offline as being just like FCP’s Make Offline command only you don’t have to option to leave the files in the trash.
9) Can you compare working with Audio in Premiere with FCP?
Premiere is a track based audio editor which means when you’re using the audio mixer and moving sliders up-and-down you are changing the level for an entire audio track and not just an audio clip. You can adjust the audio on a per-clip basis by using the audio volume rubber bands that are available when you twirl down one of the audio timelines. The audio rubber banding works very much like Final Cut Pro where you can and keyframes and adjust the rubber bands with the mouse. Rubber banding and key framing the rubber bands can also be turned on on a per track basis as well.
When you turn on Track Volume or Keyframes the audio rubberband runs across the entire audio track in the timeline:
While some people like this track based audio editing approach better because it allows for a bit more flexibility others do not like the way Premiere Pro works with audio. One advantage is that you can add audio effects such as compression or dynamics to the entire track at a time. This is great for on camera interview when you have all one subject’s dialogue on the same track. You can also route individual audio tracks into the sub mixes and then apply effects to a sub mix. Automation key framing as in automatically recording keyframes as you play back the timeline and adjusting faders on the audio mixer are also possible only per track basis. In Final Cut Pro automation is only possible per clip.
This track based audio type of mixing is how many high-end audio applications works well. Both Adobe audition and Avid ProTools work in a similar fashion. Personally I like it as it gives a bit more flexibility than was possible in Final Cut Pro though I do wish you could have the audio mixer only change the levels on a clip if you were so desired.
10) Do you recommend starting with FCP7 keyboard shortcuts preset or Premiere 6 – before customizing?
I think that’s more a matter of personal preference if you are a very keyboard driven editor or not. I started with the Avid Media Composer set since my FCPs are more of an Avid/FCP hybrid. If you’re very fast on the default FCP keyboard setup then starting with the Final Cut Pro 7.0 setting is probably wise. If you’re a mouse-driven editor I’d option for the Adobe Premiere Pro CS 6.0 keyboard mapping.
No matter what your keyboard starting point is work hard to learn keyboard shortcuts as that makes for much faster editing. Better still map they keys to your own preferences because only you know exactly what you can do to edit fast. Read the Keyboard Manifesto for more info on how I feel about keyboard editing and keyboard shortcuts.
11) In FCP I can choose an In and Out Point on my sequence and then either lift or ripple delete. I can’t seem to do that in CS6. Is it possible?
It is but it works differently, and is a bit confusing IMHO.
If you have clips “hard” selected directly with the mouse then you can use the Delete key to do what PPro calls Clear Selection. For a Ripple Delete hit Option+delete to delete the items and close the gap if that operation is possible.
If you want to use the Lift(;) or Extract(’) option then you have to use IN to OUT marks to define the range you want to Lift or Extract.
I find this approach overly confusing myself.
12) Any way to move the patch with a keyboard command?
PPro calls the patching of audio and video for edit Assign Source.
A search of the keyboard shortcuts doesn’t reveal any option to assign source video or audio so I don’t think so. That’s a shame as the PPro timeline patching is quite clunky.
13) Do adjustments to clips done via the modify> command in the project panel – ripple through to the clips that have already been edited into a sequence (s)?
For the properties of Timecode and Interpret Footage those changes do seem to ripple through to clips already in the timeline.
For Audio Channels it does not and you may be this Master Clips in Use warning if you’ve already used those clips in the timeline:
14) Is there a thumbnail view on the timeline?
When you twirl down and open a video track there’s a small pop-up menu under the output eyeball. From there you can choose different view types including Show Frames:
15) Can I select an edit point and, for example, use a keyboard shortcut to apply a crossfade transition?
When your playhead is parked on an edit use the keyboard shortcuts to apply whatever the default transition is set to. That is, by default, a Cross Dissolve but can be changed by right+clicking on a transition and choosing Set Selected as Default Transition.
If you search the word “apply” in the Keyboard Shortcuts you can see the default mappings as well as an unmapped option to Apply Default Transitions to Selection. That’s a question I heard asked often.
16) Where is the Don’t stop playback command located? In the preferences? Is there on/off toggle for “Don’t Stop Playback.”?
The “don’t stop playback” feature isn’t an actual preference that can be turned on and off. It just works that way as you are playing back in Premiere Pro. Playback will continue when you’re doing many different types of operations such as trimming, adding effects, key framing effects or even doing actual editing in the timeline. Ironically playback will stop if you just click to a different place in the timeline timecode ruler. One would think that playback would continue but in this particular version it actually stops
17) Is there copy and paste attributes in Premiere CS6? If not, what is the work-a-round? Have you found any way to copy only certain aspects of one clip attribute to another? As in FCP, it gives you a dialog box to choose which attribute of a clip to another.
You can copy and paste attributes via Edit > Paste Attributes (option+command+V) but it pastes everything applied to a clip. The only workaround that I see is to paste attributes and immediately use Clip > Remove Effects:
Remove Effects will allow you a limited option of removing certain effects. It’s an inelegant solution.
18) Show keyframing on a video track.
You can see keyframes by twirling down the triangle and opening a view track. There lives a keyframe popup where you can show keyframes, show Opacity keyframes or hide keyframes.
Opacity has its own menu option because I can only assume it’s the most often accessed parameter for things like fading up on a clip. Of note is the fact that with Show Keyframes selected you can then choose what type of keyframes to show on a PER CLIP basis with the clip keyframe menu:
There you can even choose keyframes for things like filter effects as well as the usual Motion, Opacity and Time Remapping
19) What happens if you move a clip? Do the track keyframes follow the clip and also change position or stay and create a chaos on your mix?
When you move a clip the track-based audio key-framing that you have done does not move. This is just the nature of track based audio mixing in Premiere Pro CS6.
You’ll notice that when you have Track Keyframes and Volumes turned on your can’t just grab audio clips for trimming and moving. Again, the nature of track based mixing in PPro CS6. You can still move and trim the audio by turning off Track Keyframes or grabbing and trimming the attached video but the audio track keyframes don’t move.
20) If you send your audio to Audition for mixing, does it retain all of the effects and keyframes from Premiere?
I had always thought that most keyframing and effects would move from PPro to Audition with most things intact but upon trying it out it doesn’t seem to. A clue is in the export dialog box you get when sending a sequence to Audition. It has a checkbox for Clip Volume Keyframe Metadata and nothing else:
That makes me think only clip keyframe translate and upon investigation that seems to be the case.
The above timeline has track keyframes on tracks two and four and clip keyframes on one and three as well as several track audio filters you can’t see.
Above is that same timeline sent to Audition. You can see all the clip keyframing cross over intact but none of the track keyframes translated (I’ve opened the track volume and pan envelopes where appropriate) which surprises me as I would think that would come across. None of the audio effects came across either.
21) Can you sync audio?
Premiere Pro CS 6 doesn’t have an automated audio syncing function like Final Cut Pro 10 has. You can get a version of PluralEyes that works with Premiere though. What Premiere does have are syncing functions such as syncing by markers, timecode, in and out points as well as the ability to align clips in the timeline based on functions such as markers and timecode.
22) Can you master back to XDCam Disk?
I honestly don’t have any idea but here are a couple of links that might help:
An Adobe PDF about working with XDCAM and this Adobe forum post from CS5 about going back to disk. If that doesn’t help a post into Adobe’s official forums might be a good idea.
23) How does Premiere process the difference between interpreting frames 59.94 down to 23.976?
When you tell Premiere to interpret 60 frame footage as 24 it will just slow the footage down by doing a function similar to what cinema tools would do. It doesn’t actually rewrite the media to make it slower it just plays it back at slower frame rate. Unlike cinema tools this is a nondestructive process as the files on disk remain at the original frame rate.
24) What is the fasted way to do subtitles? Do I have to create a new title for each subtitle or can I cut & edit like i do in FCP?
You have to create a new title for each subtitle. Each time you cut a title into two in the timeline it still acts like one … as in if you change the text in one it’ll change in the others as well. Same if you copy and paste titles in the timeline. You can duplicate titles in a Bin and change those to have new and different titles but not in the timeline.
So I think the answer is to create or duplicate a new title in a Bin each time you need a new title and edit that into the timeline. Probably not the speedy answer you were looking for.
25) Can you explain more about blackmagic output? does it plays native with card not CPU?
Premiere Pro CS6 introduced Mercury Transmit which is technology that allows third-party hardware vendors to write specific drivers for this new version. It works very well and works with many different third party video cards. The hardware that is supported in version 6, with the proper drivers, will take advantage of the Mercury playback engine and provide all the benefits and real-time playback capabilities that Murphy playback engine provides.
26) Is/will Premiere pro cs6.0 be optimized for the new Mac Book Pros with retina display?
At the time of this writing I don’t think that Premiere Pro CS6 has been optimized for the new MacBook Pro with retina display. I can’t imagine Adobe wouldn’t optimize in the future as they have already shown that Photoshop will be optimized.
27) I have a FCP project that has multiple streams and will be adding new footage. Do I have to go to the original files uncut and transfer to Premiere with all edits, transitions, effects intact?
I don’t exactly understand the question but I don’t see why you would not want to transfer all of the original files into Premiere. If you want to move an edit from Final Cut Pro into Premiere you can do so by exporting XML’s out of Final Cut Pro and importing them into Premiere. Adobe has specifically designed XML support into Premiere for this purpose. Many edits transitions in certain effects will come across intact. Not everything will translate from one application to another but it’s a pretty seamless process. After the XML import it may be just a matter of relinking the edit to your original footage.
28) How many resources does CS6 eat? Do I need lots of cores?
That’s tough to say overall but being that PPro CS6 is a 64-bit application it’ll take a lot of the RAM you throw at it. I’ve spent some time with the Mac Activity Monitor open when working and it seems pretty efficient at managing resources but I have to admit I have an NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for Mac which allows for amazing realtime performance in the timeline using the Mercury Playback engine.
One thing that I have seen peg the processor and its cores is using the Warp Stabilizer which has to analyze footage first, though it will analyze it in the background.
29) I’m on V5.0 Is it worth upgrading to V6.0?
The version 5 version 6 upgrade is well worth it in my opinion. First of all the new interface is much less cluttered and much more pleasant to work with. They’re great new features like Hover Scrub as well as the Mercury transmit technology which works much better with third-party video cards and other versions of Premiere. It was an easy decision for me when I use the new version to move from the older version 5 that I was using before.
30) Hope to ingest HD video and DV video on same timeline with no RAID system. Does Premiere Pro CS6 support that?
Premiere does support the mixing of resolutions and formats which is exactly what you’ll be doing if you mix HD with DV. You can play back this media without a RAID (especially DV) but the faster your drive the better performance you’re going to get especially with multicam. The faster your media drive the better overall performance you’re going to see when editing. For example’ you’ll play back ProRes Proxy a lot better than you will be able to play ProRes 4444 if you’re cutting with just a FireWire drive. In my opinion, a fast RAID is one of the best investments a hard-core editor can make. As drives fill a drive up with multiple projects at HD resolutions a fast drive can often mean the difference between dropped frames and smooth playback.
31) I use Magic Bullet Colorista II with FCP and I am unable to use it with PP CS6. ie. When using secondary keying, the Colorista window doesn’t park on the frame I’m on in PPCS6. It works fine with FCP. What’s a workaround?
I’ve seen the same problem and I was led to believe it has to do with renders on the timeline. You might try clearing or deleting any renders on the current timeline and try again. But I have seen the issue happen on a completely unrendered timeline. My guess is that Colorista II just isn’t optimized for Premiere Pro CS six as of yet. It seems to work much better in after effects.
32) When I edit multicam in ppro then move to AE is their a way to only show my active camera angle in AE?
There doesn’t seem to be. This Adobe forum thread called “Premiere multicam to after effects” might have some helpful tips though. It seems like there should be an option to collapse or commit multicam clips for just this purpose. Maybe in CS6.5.
33) Want to also know how to maintain synch when you have multiple video clips and many, many audio tracks all synched up with PluralEyes. I have experienced drifting… Have you?
I haven’t experienced any drift at all but all my sources have been matching formats: resolution and especially frame rate. My first question would be just that: do all your formats match? Having PPro perform a realtime frame rate conversion on one clip might cause it to drift. The other thing to look at is drive speed as slower hard drives might drift over time if it’s having trouble keeping up with performance.
Next up: Questions 34 – 67.
34) What native codec Adobe use with CS6 Progress or some compressed for HD as H264 who eats lot of CPU?
Unfortunately Adobe doesn’t have a native intermediate codec like ProRes or DNxHD. They really hang their hat on the native workflow and Premiere CS6 does work very well with native formats like XDCam or DSLR H264. It works especially well if you have an NVIDIA CIDA enabled the GPU that can take full advantage of the Mercury Playback engine. That said there are times when an intermediate codec is very nice to have and quite needed. I’ve used ProRes a lot in version 6 without any issues.
35) Can you have multiple projects open at once as in FCP? If not, what’s the best way to copy from one project to another?
You can only open one project at a time in Premiere Pro CS6. PPro has always acted in this manner. It does trip up Final Cut Pro editors often as it’s a common practice to have more than one project open at a time. Check out question number 2 for a good method to import select sequence from one project to another. Otherwise you can copy and paste elements between projects.
36) Speak about what types of projects you might use different NLE’s for and why?
For graphics, compositing or effects heavy types of edits I’ve always leaned more toward Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Studio. I liked the way FCP handles graphics and the Studio apps are great compliments. Adobe Premiere Pro and the Production Premium CS6 bundle is taking the place as the Adobe products handle graphics and media in much the same way.
Avid Media Composer is usually my choice for music videos and concerts when I know I need auxiliary timecode and grouping (in the case of music videos) or multicam grouping (in the case of concerts). For more cuts and dissolve based edits with clients in the room I’ll often use Media Composer as I find its keyboard use and trimming faster than the other NLEs. If I know an edit has to go to color grading via our Baselight I’ll often choose Media Composer as well since it has a very solid workflow with the Baselight.
37) Can I use the numeric keypad to nudge a clip? Ex. (+5 return) = 5 frames to the right. Or do the same with an edit point?
Yes, using the numeric keypad works for moving clips or edit points via a + and – increments. For moving an edit you have to have the edit point selected with either Ripple or Roll trim indicators. Watch for the + or – timecode values to appear in the timeline timecode indicator when you enter the value:
38) When you drag that media from other folders, is it being copied into the CSPP scratch discs?
In short no. It’s just like Final Cut Pro in that media resides in its original location when you drag it from the finder into the application. All media management is on the editor’s shoulders. Be careful because all the media management issues that happened in Final Cut Pro can happen in Premiere Pro as well. And the “reconnection dance” is a bit more difficult in that the off-line dialog box doesn’t have any automated searching functions.
39) You mentioned that better to use IN/OUT and media encoder knows what to render, but past versions, were not user friendly and it encodes all the timeline anyway, not the selected area.
That’s not my experience in CS6. I very often mark IN to OUT in the timeline and choose the Sequence In/Out in the Source Range popup at the bottom of the Export Settings window and it only exports what is between the IN and OUT marks. This is true of exporting right from PPro as well as sending a queue to Adobe Media Encoder.
40) I do same day edits, how fast can you import, analyze, edit and export compared to FCP X or 7?
That’s a very subjective question but in short it’s much faster than FCP7 since you can work native with most media and don’t have to transcode. That’s a huge speed boost right there. It can also work natively with more files then Final Cut Pro X so that could also be a speed boost. The features like Hover Scrub which is very similar to FCPX skimming can also speed along the edit process. Other than that I think it’s more in the hands of the editor as to how fast one can work in the particular application. In my mind I can trim much better and much faster with the Premiere’s new trimming tools (including dynamic trimming) than I can in FCPX using its tools.
What Premiere Pro doesn’t have that FCPX does have is the automated analysis capabilities that can analyze for things like color balance, audio problems, rolling shutter and camera shake. PPro does include the Warp Stabilizer which is one of the more amazing stabilization tools out there in any non-linear editor.
41) Do you set up your scratch disk any differently than you did in FCP?
No. I have an Adobe Scratch folder on my main media RAID and that’s where all four of my scratch disks are pointed:
42) If you have Premiere pro 5 and FCP 7 on same mac which one is better to capture video with? with lowest MB per min. small file.
File size and MB per minute has less to do with the application you are capturing through but rather the codec you are capturing to. For example, capturing or transcoding the exact same clip to ProRes LT should result in a file that’s about the same size no matter which application you use to create it. Each ProRes flavor has its own specific bit rate it uses regardless of what application creates the file.
43) Can I make my blade tool snap to my playhead when snapping is turned on?
I’ve heard this as being rather controversial that the Razor Tool doesn’t snap to the playhead when snapping is turned on. Why it doesn’t is beyond me as it seems it should. If you’re at least close to the playhead it seems to make the cut on the playhead when you click.
But let me propose this: never use the Razor Blade tool as that takes way too much time to select and then position the tool with the mouse before a click. Instead use the Add Edit command as Add Edit will make a cut at the playhead via the speed of a keystroke:
And you have options to add the edits to tracks you have selected or all tracks. It’s so much faster than the Razor Blade tool.
44) How stable is it to work with the DLSR h264 footage natively without transcoding?
I have had very good luck working with native DSLR footage in Premiere. I am fortunate enough to have an NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for Mac video card that is CUDA enabled which makes playback very very fast.
45) Do you know if there is a way to use an NVIDIA Quadro card with an iMac?
An iMac has a built-in GPU so unfortunately there is no way to add an NVIDIA CUDA-enabled GPU to an iMac. If you have a thunderbolt iMac there could be an option for a external GPU chassis to allow you to use a CUDA enabled GPU. I don’t know if those options have been thoroughly flushed out and tested as of this writing.
46) What are key differences/improvements in CS6 vs CS5 and CS5.5? Is an upgrade from CS5 to 6 worth it at this time?
Key differences that are important to me include : a much better, much cleaner and newly designed interface; adobe’s own version of skimming called Hover Scrub (that really is much more than skimming); much better third-party hardware integration with Mercury Transmit; and timeline trimming that is head and shoulders above what the previous versions of Premiere had.
I think the CS6 upgrade is a no-brainer as it’s a much much better application than it has been in the past.
47) Can you rename the clips in the browser and have the names be applied to the original source clip?
No, the rename file to match clip and rename clip to match file is functionality that is not included in Premiere Pro CS6.
48) How does the Speech Analysis compare to Avid’s PhraseFind? Better or worse?
Adobe’s speech analysis technology is different than Avid’s phrase fine. Adobe actually makes an attempt to transcribe dialogue into human readable text that is attached to its file via metadata. It’s far from perfect but it has gotten better version to version and is somewhat usable.
PhraseFind is a dialogue search tool that allows you to search for specific words and phrases and locate them within a clip. The software analyzes the media and it works via phonetics so it does not give you a readable transcript once the media has been analyzed. It’s very handy especially on documentary or interview types of projects. If I could choose only one I would choose to have a PhraseFind like technology as opposed to the transcription technology at this point because the transcribing isn’t perfect. And the worst your audio is the less accurate the transcriptions will be. Adobe’s transcription can be a great starting point though if you have to make transcriptions and you have decent audio. If you want something like PhraseFind in PPro try Boris Soundbite.
49) How do we access the Scrub option again?
I think you mean Hover Scrub? The toggle is under the Panel Menu in the right corner of a bin when in Thumbnail View:
It’s easiest to toggle it with the keyboard shortcut Shift + H.
50) Does Premiere now support scripts like AFX? “comp(”08_Scene“).layer(”SETTINGS“).effect(”ALL_PHOTOS“)(”Slider“)”
No, not that I am aware of.
51) Can you use a 2nd screen?
Yes you can use a second monitor with Premiere Pro. All window layouts can be adjusted at will and saved to new templates.
52) Best way to make slow motion?
Premiere Pro CS6 has a very Final Cut Pro like speed dialog box accessible via a right+click on a clip in the timeline:
PPro also has very powerful time remapping both in the Effect Controls tab and right in the timeline. I like to do it right in the timeline. It’s a bit confusing at first but once you understand how the “split” keyframes work then it’s quite intuitive.
Check out this Adobe TV episode on Time Remapping. It’s from version 5 but was very helpful to me:
53) What do you think is the biggest draw for editors in transition who may consider Premiere CS6?
I think it’s the new trimming capabilities that is in version 6. They’re very powerful so they can be a bit confusing to learn if you’re coming from Final Cut Pro 7 where the trimming was very different. And while I love features like Hover Scrub and the new, uncluttered interface it’s the trimming that wins for me hands-down. I would encourage any FCP7 editor moving to Premiere to study the trimming very very closely. FCP7 editors should also look very closely at dynamic trimming which is trimming with actual playback including JKL scrubbing. FCP7 had this feature it just didn’t work very well and was rarely used.
54) Modifying Audio – can you remove a channel when modifying? Ie. Canon 7d with AGC disabling static on Right Channel?
If you try Modify > Audio Channels on a clip you have the option to disable audio channels in a clip by setting them to NONE:
You can see clips in the timeline that have had audio channels disabled as well as they are indicated via a dashed line in the audio track:
55) If you are working on a project, shot with various cameras, do you recommend transcoding to ProRes instead of working with native camera files?
Not necessarily though this is a hot topic debate often debated amongst editors and depending on who you talk to opinions may vary. I have had some very successful edits that combine Sony XDCam media with native Canon DSLR media. I am running a supported NVIDIA CUDA graphics card and that really helps the Mercury Elayback engine scream when working with native media.
56) What is the greatest advantage and disadvantage of working in Premiere Pro CS6?
The biggest advantage: speed. Combining the native file support which allows for near instant file access with the speed and precision that Hover Scrub can allow as well as the new trimming tools and you can work very fast the new version of Premiere.
The biggest disadvantage: media management. Like FCP Premiere is just using a file path to get to the media on your hard drive. There is no “media management” above and beyond what you the editor are doing on your own. Reconnecting off-line media can be more difficult than FCP7 because Premiere doesn’t have any way to automatically search a drive for the clip is looking for. This can become even more tedious with file-based media as it often has cryptic filenames.
57) Good job. Can he tell us if it’s possible to use a keyboard based workflow solely to navigate the interface and perform edits?
Premiere Pro CS6 is much more keyboard friendly than past versions. I’m still working on exactly how much I can and can’t do via the keyboard. It takes time to learn all the shortcuts as well as remap them to my liking. My advice would be to really dig through the Keyboard Shortcuts and look for those specific things you want to do via the keyboard. There’s a lot in there.
58) Frame blending when slowing speed or only frame stutter?
I’m not exactly sure of the question but if you’re looking for frame blending and field processing options then right + click on a clip in the timeline for both:
Frame Blend is a toggle while Field Options will bring up a dialog box:
59) When moving clips it jumps a few frames when trying to place the clip next to another. It doesn’t stick. Even when snap is on.
This is strange behavior that I haven’t seen on two different Premiere Pro CS6 installs. Try the Preference Manager from Digital Rebellion to trash the preferences. That’s good maintenance that can often help with weird issues.
60) Is there a default trim tool state so that when I click on an edit point, it will default to a ripple or roll trim? Or do I have to select the type of trim?
There is only one Trimming preference:
I haven’t found any way to change a default trim state though that would be a great thing to add in the future. Check out some other great trimming shortcuts in this article.
61) Does looping have to be on for the Don’t Stop Playback preference to work?
No, looping does not have to be on as don’t stop playback is it working all the time. I tend to use it a lot as it’s an easy way to adjust parameters for effects and see the results in real time without playback stopping.
62) Can snapping act like a sticky key as in FCP or is it still like in cs5.5?
It’s still like in CS5.5.
63) In audio subframe edit, i can move audio in samples? not TC?
Yes, when you choose to Show Audio Time Units in the PPro timeline it moves into subframe audio units instead of frames. At that point all frame-based timecode indicators have changed to subframe:
But moving clips depends on whether you have video or audio selected for movement. Video will still move a frame based increments but audio will then move at the subframe level.
64) Differences with rendering?
Rendering is similar between Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro CS6. There are indicator lines in the timeline to show what does and doesn’t need to be rendered. Red means render, yellow does not.
Rendering clips in the timeline is a bit different as you can choose to render the effects under the Work Area via the Sequence menu:
<p
I actually like to turn the Work Area entirely off under the Timeline panel menu:
When that is turned off you now have Render In to Out options via the Sequence menu:
65) Is there the default for creating subclips using keyboard shortcut without being required to enter the name and do it later perhaps ?
There’s only one Make Subclip option that I see, under the Clip menu and via a keyboard mapping. When choosing to Make Subclip both present this popup:
PPro seems to display that popup every time you make a subclip. I have my Make Subclip mapped to F1 so it’s pretty fast just to hit Enter and keep moving when making subclips. At least the focus still stays in the Source monitor to keep working. An alternative would be to use Adobe Prelude to make subclips as it has it’s own subclipping method.
66) can you show what that History tab is for? Is it like Photoshop History?
The History window is much like Photoshop history. It lists previous actions by name and allows you to undo and redo by moving the little history indicator back in time. In the image below I’ve moved the history back to a Trim operation:
It seems that there is only 32 levels of Undo but according to this forum post there were 99 undo levels in older versions of PPro. I wish they would bring them back. Changing the memory allocation in the preferences didn’t seem to change the number of undos.
67) Is there a way to symmetrically change the transition duration? Right now, I can only seem to change one side at a time. Is it possible to do Symmetrical transition duration editing with the mouse?
If you click a transition will open in the effect editor and let you edit the transition there. When changing the duration by typing a number in the effect editor it will symmetrically change the transition on both sides. But if you want to just click and drag in a timeline to symmetrically change the transition answer is no it only changes one-sided time when you click and drag. It would also be nice if it told you the new transition lenght.
Next up: Questions 68 – 105.
68) up and down arrow for incrementing values in fields?
There doesn’t seem to be an option for using the arrow keys to move parameter values though that would be helpful. This forum post outlines a few other options for changing values that might be helpful that I’ve pasted below.
-
- All effects have a reset button, Its the little arrow the goes anti clock wise.
-
- Hover your mouse over it and see that it says: reset.
-
- If you hold the command while scrubbing the numbers after the comma change.
-
- If you hold the shift the parameter will increment in larger levels 10, 20 etc
69) How good is the standard green screen keying?
Premiere Pro CS6’s key effect is called Ultra Key and works quite well. I’ve only had to use it on one occasion but it was able to pull a very usable key rather quickly from a moderately decent shot. Plus it’s GPU accelerated so it can be realtime. If it doesn’t work you can always Dynamic Link over to After Effects and do keying work there.
70) Can you turn on/off effects in effects controls tab?
Yes, if you click the little letters that say “FX” this will toggle on effect on and off.
71) Can you explain how Premiere CS6 integrates with After Effects (i.e., exporting/importing from After Effects)?
Adobe uses a process called Dynamic Linking to move clips between PPro and After Effects. Select the clips you want to send to AE, right+click and choose Replace with After Effect Composition:
This is much like FCP’s Send to Motion command. You’ll get an new AE composition/projects of varying complexity depending on what you choose. A single AE clip is left behind:
When you update and save that new AE project the PPro clip is updated as well. Many parameters from PPro will translate to AE as well. It works nicely.
72) if you apply a certain effect to a slew of clips and decide you screwed up and say this was 200 undos ago–can you select the altered clips and remove just that specific unwanted filter?
No. There’s no way to selectively remove a single filter from more than one clip at a time. You can delete a single filter at a time in the Effect Controls tab but that would be one clip at a time. The Remove Effects option lets you remove effects from more than one clip but it removes them all.
73) Is there real-time audio keyframing with audio fader?
Yes but this works on a TRACK based level and not per-clip. This goes back to the big difference in mixing between Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro. PPro is a track based audio tool and the Audio Mixer works on a track based level both for adjusting levels and recording automation keyframes. See question number 9 for more of an explanation.
74) Are there keyboard shortcuts for adjusting audio levels Ex. Select a clip in FCP and press cmd+opt+L, then raise or lower audio levels with the numeric keypad –1.25 or +2?
I haven’t found one and a read through the Adjusting volume levels of the PPro help doesn’t reveal this feature either. Too bad as it would be great to adjust clip volume levels via keyboard commands.
UPDATE: Andy Edwards had a great idea on Twitter that you could just map PPro’s Audio Gain to cmd+opt+L to get a similar control in PPro CS6. That’s a great idea, one that I have already done on my keyboard mapping. I misread that to think we were looking for some keyboard command that could change the levels of a clip on the fly which you can’t do in PPro. Thanks Andy.
75) you mentioned you edit with fcp avid and Premiere. when do you use Premiere?
I’ll use Premiere Pro CS6 where I would have used FCP7 in the past, for things like graphics heavy pieces or jobs where I need to do a lot of effects and motion graphics work since After Effects is well integrated. If I know I’m staying in my system and not having to go to our Baselight for color grading that’s another option to work in PPro. But if I know I have to go to the Baselight then another NLE might work better as PPro doesn’t have any Media Manager or Consolidate/Transcode function like FCP7 or Avid Media Composer has.
76) How do you get real-time reference monitors in Premiere Pro CS6?
Choose Window > Reference Monitor to bring up the reference monitor. It’s most useful with color correction as you can turn on the video scopes and gang that monitor to the timeline. If you choose the Workspace preset (Window > Workspace > Color Correction) for color correction the Reference Monitor is placed in that by default.
77) Do you feel the third party FX plugins are as robust and available for CS6 as they are for FCP?
Definitely not but the third party of PPro plugins hasn’t really had time to develop like it has for FCP with this new version. It’s a bit of the chicken / egg problem. More great third party plugins might attract more users to Premiere Pro CS6 but many developers probably need to see more editors using the tool before spending time developing for the platform. Adobe is keeping a good list of plugins on their website.
78) How to save effect presets?
Once you have set parameters for an item in the Effect Controls right+click on the particular thing you want to save and choose Save Preset:
Then to access the saved preset check under the Effects tab in the first folder, called Presets. You’ll also find a number of default presets in folders that are included with Premiere Pro CS6.
79) Would you recommend a recent graduate from a Masters program try and invest money into CS6 while having both CS5 and FCP7?
I think it’s well work investing in CS6. I wouldn’t worry much about CS5 as it’s on its way out since CS6 is such a nice update. If you know CS6 you’ll be able to get around in CS5. The new Adobe Creative Cloud is a more affordable way to get into CS6 without a large upfront cost since it’s a new subscription model.
FCP7 is still good to know since there are a lot of FCP7 installs out there but I might not buy a copy unless you know you need to use it or learn it for a paying job. And for what it’s worth it might be worth checking out Avid Media Composer (free trial here) as well.
80) Would you recommend switching to Premiere or stay with FCP?
Since FCP7 is at the end of its life there will probably come a time when new Mac OS upgrades or new Macintosh models will no longer support FCP7. Who knows when this might happen (it could be years) but IMHO it’s worth starting to make a transition plan from FCP7 be it to Premiere Pro CS6, Avid Media Composer or Final Cut Pro X.
81) Would like to know more about ease of use for copy/paste functions for color correction filters.
There’s no color correction specific copy/paste functions as color correction is effect/filter based in PPro. You can copy and paste effects of any kind so you can also copy/paste color correction effects or save presets of specific effects. See question number 78 for more about saving effects presets.
82) Which motherboard, PC makers and graphic cards are optimized for CS6?
Check the official Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 tech specs page as there is a full list of supported hardware. Keep an eye on that page as those specs could change as Adobe supports more and more hardware.
83) What’s the best method for video output using media encoder?
When you hit command + M to export you can choose to queue exports in Adobe Media Encoder for later outputting. AME pauses when you go back to work in PPro on a sequence in AME so I often queue up a few exports during lunch or for an overnight export.
84) I can’t find through-edit marks in Premiere.
Unfortunately Premiere Pro CS6 doesn’t have through-edit (or match frame edit) indicators when you add an edit in a clip. That would make for a great feature request, like a lot of things in this post.
85) Can PPro CS6 send clips directly to Motion?
No, there’s no direct export to Motion but you could XML export out of PPro and then import that into FCP7 to go to Motion. Or you could use After Effects to do most anything you might do in Motion. AE has a steep learning curve but it is very, very powerful.
86) What components of Premiere CS6 will FCP editors NOT like/be used to? Biggest hurdle going from FCP to Premieee?
This is a very subjective list for sure but check out this recent blog post 10 Final Cut Pro things FCP editors might be missing in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6.
87) What can we say to convince our manager to switch from Final Cut to Premiere?
You could let them know how similar the applications are overall so there wouldn’t be the learning curve that moving to FCPX or Avid Media Composer might have. There’s the new subscription pricing model that the Adobe Creative Cloud offers that makes it a bit more affordable than before. And there’s the fact that Premiere Pro CS6 is a modern 64-bit application that will be supported by Adobe moving into the future while legacy Final Cut Pro is an older 32-bit architecture that is basically at the end of its life as far as support and updates go. But if FCP is working well it’s often hard to convince bean-counters to spend money on an upgrade so good luck.
88) Does PP use capture scratch folders like FCP7 or is the media management more like FCPX?
PPro does use scratch folders that are accessed and set via the Project > Project Settings > Scratch Disk menu. It’s like FCP7 in that imported media resides in its original location but any new media captured from tape or rendered in the timeline is written to the Scratch disks.
89) Please review the basic, fundamental steps one should take to setup PPro CS6 with a Quadro 4000.
Obviously you need the card installed but also there are both the NVIDIA os drivers and the NVIDIA CUDA drivers that have to be installed (later versions of Mac OS have the basic card drivers in the OS. Once they are installed be sure Premiere Pro is using the CUDA acceleration for the Mercury Playback Engine by checking the Project > Project Settings > General and choosing GPU acceleration from the Video Rendering and Playback popup:
90) Please address the reported lack of clip gain controls in Premiere on a clip-by-clip basis. Thanks.
Check out question number 9 as that addressed the track based audio editing that Premiere Pro CS6 uses. There is clip-based gain controls via FCP-like rubber bands but the PPro Audio Mixer is mixing entire tracks and not individual clips.
91) Is there a place for both Premiere Pro CS6 and FCP7 in an editor’s armory? What tasks (if any) is FCP7 still best for?
That’s really a matter of opinion and my opinion is that Premiere Pro CS6 can replace FCP7 in an editor’s toolbox but there are differences for sure. I feel FCP7 is still better suited for music videos since it supports both auxiliary timecode as well as easy switching/changing/stepping through a multiclip in the timeline. For another editor’s opinion on what PPro might be missing check out My Adobe Premiere Wishlist from the Edit Doctor.
92) If he was starting out new to be an editor which system would he buy? Adobe Premiere or FCP?
I wouldn’t buy FCP7 unless you had a job guaranteeing that it would be paid for. I just don’t see speeding money on FCP7 when we know it’s dead. The Adobe CS suite would be an easy choice but also FCPX as it’s so affordable. But the perfect editor toolbox would include Avid Media Composer as there are a lot of Media Composer installs out there and if you’re freelance you never know when you’re going to get the call to use it.
93) I like to ride the audio levels in fcp. How do I do this and not bake it into the track on Premiere?
Riding the levels usually means using the mixer so if your mixer channels are set to Read you can adjust those levels without PPro recording the level keyframes. But if you’re using other modes like Write, Touch or Latch then it will record those keyframes. That’s just the nature of track based audio mixing. See question number 9 for more on PPro audio.
94) How is the multi-cam editing compared to FCP-X? Can CS6 do Multicam Editing?
Multicam in Premiere Pro CS6 works well though it’s not quite as good as in FCPX. When you create a mulitcam sequence in PPro it’s similar to the Angle Editor in FCPX in that you can make adjustments and apply effects (like color correction) to clips in the multicam sequence and those changes will apply to where you’ve used the multicam clip in the edit.
Once a multicam clip is setup you can use the Multi-camera Monitor to playback and record realtime camera switches:
95) How does the sequence setting affect projects with mixed media formats?
Premiere Pro CS6 is a sequence based editor in that the resolution and timecode base that you choose for a sequence is used when mixing media formats. For example, if you’re working in a 29.97 timeline and you add 23.98 media PPro is going to add pulldown to conform those 23.98 clips to the 29.97 timeline.
96) How does PPro handle Photoshop Layers?
When importing a layered a layered PSD file you have the option to import a flattened file, individual layers or a sequence:
There’s great interoperability between PPro and Photoshop, part of the strong ties among the Creative Suite apps.
97) How does an iMac with Thunderbolt handle Adobe Premiere Pro editing for HD?
It would handle it quite well considering Thunderbolt’s connection speed. To get the most out of this setup a fast RAID like the Promise Pegasus would be perfect and allow enough speed to even edit uncompressed video if need be.
98) How do you import SD card Footage?
You could load media right off an SD card using the PPro Media Browser (Window > Media Browser) such as below with a GoPro camera:
But you really don’t want to edit off an SD card so most likely you’ll have your SD cards backed up and copied onto a media drive. If you’re working native you can then load them through the Media Browser right from their original media card folder structure.
99) How to play your video in fullscreen mode?
One cool feature of Premiere Pro has always been that you can hit the tilde key (`) in any window to display that full size. It’s great for the Program monitor but you’ll still see transport controls. In CS6 Adobe added true full screen playback and you can get that by hitting CONTROL + Tilde. Check out this video for an example.
100) Can you trim like Avid by using J-K-L?
Yes, once you have a trim set up then just use JKL scrubbing as you would in Avid Media Composer. You won’t see the tiny Avid trim playhead moving in the timeline as you JKL scrub but PPro CS6 does allow for decent JKL trimming.
101) Can you demonstrate a Red workflow specifically to show going from offline proxies back to raw files to Speed Grade?
That’s a question that could be the subject of its own webinar and it’s also something I haven’t done. But here’s a couple of links that might help:
Adobe has its own RED workflow PDF
This YouTube video is a demo of a RED SpeedGrade online workflow
102) Can you also point out the updates in Premiere Pro 6, compared to Premiere Pro 5.5?
Check out the Adobe What’s New PDF for a full list of CS6 updates. The video2brain Premiere Pro CS6 New Features Workshop is another great, free resource as to what’s new in Premiere Pro CS6.
103) Is there a key command for marker duration?
There’s no keyboard command for extending a marker duration to the playhead in the way that you could do in Final Cut Pro (though that would be nice). You can use the Edit Marker dialog to change a duration:
Once you’ve extended a marker you can then grab either side of the marker in the timeline (or Source monitor) and change the duration. You can also use the Marker window to see and edit markers:
One thing worth noting is that you can have more than one marker on a single frame as you can see in the above image. That can be a bit confusing.
104) Can Premiere export ProRes 422 compressed video?
It can if you have the ProRes codecs installed as they will be just another Quicktime export option. If you want ProRes presets in Adobe Media Encoder then download the Adobe AME CS6 presets for ProRes MAC only.
105) How do you see video scopes?
You can turn on various video scopes by selecting the Source, Program or Reference monitor panel menu and choosing any number of scope options:
Scopes is a place where ganging the Reference monitor can come in handy as it can display the scopes for the Program monitor and you’ll still be able to see the image in the Program monitor.